[AcTiOn!JaCksOn]

All the cool kids hang glide.

[DBrose]

[Dontsink]

[AcTiOn!JaCksOn]

[Dontsink]

I turned forty last december and i started PG,which inexorably led to an HG course... Midlife crisis?,if it is i'm loving it so far.
BTW as you grow older and wiser(or just older like moi) you will learn that there is nothing wrong with cheap beer and a couch,weekend warriors need rest too.

[adyr]

I fly paragliders from '98. My previous paraglider was having a lot of collapses. Many front stalls, until I learned to fly actively well enough to prevent them, but I couldn't get rid of asymmetrics, no matter how hard I tried. That paraglider I think was a tricky design, to pass DHV certification. Low wingload, leading to nice openings, but easy collapses. After a fullstall out of the blue (no sign before it), simply because of entering into descending air near a huge thermal, I switched to a new EN-B paraglider with pretty good performance. On this one I have very, very few collapses, but I think the previous one gave me post traumatic stress disorder or something. The current one is known for its not very confortable handling... but it's pretty performant for its rating. Still, sometimes it scares me. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago I took off on a manageable wind for paragliders, which increased suddenly while I was in the air. I was blown back on full speed (I'm told that it reaches 55 km/h or so with the speed bar fully pushed, but it turned out that it wasn't correctly set, so perhaps it was at top to 50 km/h). Blown back means: entering into rotor, and over a forest. It was a little bit scary. I've got some collapses, not very big, manageable, except a frontal while on speed bar doing big ears. Even that was easy, by letting the bar and letting out the ears. But I had to land in a tree. The landing was gentle, the scary part was that the wind wanted to lift me up with the whole tree, the whole forest, to blow everything back. I had to fight the wing a little to be able to collapse it and pull it into the tree. The fact that the tree was swinging back and forth the whole time didn't help. So, I need more speed, and no collapses. I guess a hang glider fulfills that. I won't give up paragliding, but I'll stick to slope soaring in laminar wind (in the morning or in the evening, no thermal turbulence), or thermal flying with wind as close as possible to zero. For the rest, there is the hang glider. No more paragliding in combined conditions, unless they both are weak.

[Roadrunner]

Personally, my balls will never be big enough to fly a Para-glider. But heck, Para-gliders do get Pilots in the air, is that not we all long to do?

Also Para-gliders since the mid 80's allow us to be part of their oregoniization.

I hope to see you on one of the launches.

Good By: The BIG Guy

[skyshaddo]

Pitch Control

[peanuts]

[miraclepieco]

Paragliders are WAY more exciting!

[lostgriz]

[Richard Saffold]

I don't care about stats, and don't fly paragliders because I have seen a lot more local skilled pg pilots wearing plaster than I have ever seen in over 40 years of hangliding. It either looks boring or terrifying to me, and i prefer to fly more like a bird than sitting in the seat of an airliner.

Plus they plug up the local cliff sites in light conditions, and then complain when they become the turn pylons for hangliders when they really should be top landing and sharing the sky..In other words most don't give a rats ass about consideration and why there is considerable rift in these communities where I live.

Do what you want.

Rich

[jjcote]

[FormerFF]

[adyr]

[Flyking]

My mentor and the person who taught me how to fly switched to a paraglider last year. His sail collapsed and he hit the hill from 150 AGL. His hip was broken in 3 places. He is back to flying hanggliders again . When I fly @ the point of the moutain in Utah with all the paragliders I feel like a shark swimming around a bunch of Jellyfish . I would never go to the DARK side Kinda like yhe difference between skiing and snowboarding. Snowboarding SUCKS !!!!

[Roadrunner]

Hello, I do not think my Balls will grow large enough to fly a Para-glider
I SEE IT THAT THE GUYS WHO FLY Para-gliders. just in the very start of their flying career are equipped with the needed (LARGER BALLS) that a person needs in order to fly Para-Gliders.

I guess I must be honest with myself. When it comes to flying, I come up short in the Large Testicle department.

OK, Good By The BIG Guy. CCMCK@GOLDSTATE.NET

[Dontsink]

Believe me,it takes a lot more balls to start HG than PG.
Both are extreme sports from day one(if you or your gear fails you might die) ,PG is just easier,less physical and less intimidating.
Since statistics are muddy,i cannot say which is more dangerous.
I like both,for different conditions and moods.

[Davedebogusone]

"Both are extreme sports from day one"pfft dont have to be....but....
I have seen hang gliders turtled on launch ,but have never seen a hangglider drag the pilot 50yrds through bushes and rocks.( turtle h2, drag fest P4)
Only one gets to be the pylon in the game nylon pylon.
and I never seen a Hang glider just fall from the sky .
Out of the two which one is most likely to replace their emergency chute ,never used ,only because it got old . I pick that one

[AIRTHUG]

This thread is retarded.

A bunch of people that have never flown paragliders talking about how much better hang gliding is. Really guys?

All aircraft have limitations. Failure to respect aircraft limitations often results in tragedy. The weakest link in either aircraft is the pilot.

There are pro's and con's to both, why can't we all be content to leave it at that?